A bridge. Desperate refugees are fleeing from an advancing German army in the west. Equally desperate people are on the run from an advancing Soviet army in the east. They meet on the middle of the bridge and are trapped. They are Poland.

The opening sequence in Katyn potently symbolises this nation. During World War II, prisoners of war were treated differently in the two occupation zones. The Germans ingratiated themselves with the Polish officers and were terrified by the masses of ordinary soldiers. The Soviets tried to win the favour of the soldiers while they sent the officers, around 20.000 of them, to the Katyn forest.

Veteran director Andrzej Wajda has made a war drama of international calibre. We are impressed by its faithful reconstruction of the times, and we sympathise with the characters. This is an important film for Polish identity and self-respect. It is a film where responsibility, or the lack of it, is central. The Katyn massacre was only admitted by the Soviet authorities in 1990, during the Gorbachev administration.

Ola Lund Renolen